[dropcap sid=”dropcap-1432658752″]R[/dropcap]ecent grants totaling more than $2 million to School of Public Affairs (SPA) faculty will support their efforts to answer questions important to New York City and the world.
What factors drive populations to move, and what impact does this migration have on the environment? With a $1 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, Professor Deborah Balk is leading a team of experts to understand the global demographic, socioeconomic, and geographic factors that cause populations to move. The team’s work will combine several decades of census and other survey data with satellite imagery to illuminate trends and relationships relevant to policy makers.
How do New York City Council members allocate discretionary funds to the city’s nonprofits, and how effective is that spending? Associate Professor Nicole Marwell’s study will answer the first question. With a $240,000 grant also from the NSF, she will use “network analysis” to reveal key political dynamics, including the relationship between council members and nonprofits and between the members themselves and how these relationships affect legislative voting.
With $500,000 from the City Council, Professor Daniel Williams will answer the second question. He will assess the effectiveness of discretionary grants in two major areas—small business development and dropout prevention—by looking at the capacity, activities, and effectiveness of 17 nonprofits.
How do we train the next generation of nonprofit leaders in New York City? Distinguished Lecturer Michael Seltzer is helping to solve this issue by leading a professional development certificate program to train and mentor midcareer professionals to become executive directors. With a $450,000 New York Community Trust grant, the program will help ensure that new leaders have the right skills and represent the diversity of the people served by the metropolitan area’s 40,000 nonprofits.
Says Public Affairs Dean David Birdsell, “These grants demonstrate the ways SPA serves its mission: faculty are involved in high-level research funded by leading agencies and policy actors. Faculty also help foster the creation of human capital in the public sector.”
—Brian Kell